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Assassin’s Creed 4 may get series back on track (preview)

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Assassin's Creed 4 may get series back on track (preview)

ACGA_SP_55_CaribbeanSea_HarpooningSharkAttack_1377255601 I know the exact moment when the Assassin’s Creed series lost its mojo. When Ubisoft Montreal killed off Lucy Stillman, the overarching plot with Desmond, Abstergo and the end of the world lost a lot of its potency. Sure, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Assassin’s Creed 3 were good games, but they didn’t enrapture players with the deeper mythology and modern-day storyline. It ended up as a frayed mess. That’s why Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is important. It’s a way for Ubisoft Montreal to start over, and the franchises can truly be rebooted. It’s a clean slate on a next-generation of consoles, game director Ashraf Ismail said. “We knew that we were going to ship on next-gen.” And this entry is a way to bring new fans into the series. They don’t need to know any of the previous lore (though it helps) because they play as a new, modern-day character.
ACGA_SP_61_CaribbeanSea_Spyglass_1377255636 A key tool for a pirate is a spyglass, which lets players assess a ship before attacking and it may give insight into a town's defenses. YOU PLAY YOURSELF: Done in a first-person perspective, the outer-shell narrative puts players in the role of an Abstergo employee. Ismail said, “We do pick up after AC3. You can see what happened to Desmond. We have a lot to do with Desmond in the optional content.” But for the most part, players will explore the company and its surrounding offices as a data analyst exploring memories of past figures. From initial impressions, the conglomerate appears peachy. But as players peel back the veil, they’ll discover that Abstergo isn’t as great as it seems. At the same time, they’ll be in the animus delving into the memories of Edward Kenway, an ancestor of Connor, the hero of Assassin’s Creed 3. Despite advancing the main story, the sequel itself takes a step back in history, going from the American Revolution to the Caribbean. “We wanted to tell a real human story,” Ismail said. Edward “doesn’t know who he is in life.” He’s a character that becomes rich with gold pouring out of his pockets, but according to the game director, he’s searching for something more and he attaches himself to some of the more famous names of the era like Benjamin Hornigold and Blackbeard seeking guidance. ACGA_SP_60_CaribbeanSea_NavalMortar_1377255620 The Jackdaw will fire different weapons based on the camera angle. Players may be able to fire mortars. MASTER AND COMMANDER: In the hands-on time I had, I found controlling Edward’s ship, the Jackdaw, easy. It feels more maneuverable compared to the ones in last year's entry. The Jackdaw has a half speed, a full speed and a travel speed that zooms the camera out as the vessel sweeps across the enormous world of the Caribbean. Players have to be careful with weather though because ships can be affected by strong winds. Fighting other ships is easier with the type of attack determined by the camera angle and position of the ships. If an enemy schooner is in front, the Jackdaw will shoot out chained cannonballs meant to slow the vessel down. Come on the broadside of a ship and players can fire the main cannons and a more surgical strike with the long shot. If a Spanish ship is chasing players down, they can leave barrels full of gunpowder that act as naval mines. Lastly, I did come across a Man of War with the ability to launch mortar fire on the Jackdaw. Perhaps, that’s another ability that could be unlocked by buying upgrades to the vessel. Throughout the campaign, Edward will engage in piracy to gain supplies. There are essentially two ways to get them. They can blow up a ship and collect whatever is left in the flotsam or they could get a vessel’s full payload by weakening it and then boarding the ship for a takeover. This is where the Assassin’s Creed 4 lets players use their creativity. There are dozens of ways to board an enemy vessel. Edward can jump into the water and climb up the sides. He can take short cut up the rigging and leap from mast to mast. ACGA_SP_52_E3Toy_FortLandCombat_1377255585 Combat resembles Assassin's Creed 3 but there's more of an emphasis on guns. METHODS OF PIRACY: To capture a ship, players’ crews must battle the men on the rival vessel. If they defeat a certain number, the rival crewmen will surrender. Fighting can get difficult as there are more brutes aboard and it can be chaotic. Players will have to learn to use the environment and fire at exploding barrels or take down snipers that threaten Edward’s men. The sheer variety and options of taking down a ship remind me of the way players could attack and takeover outposts in Far Cry 3. The materials players will pick up can be used to upgrade the Jackdaw. That’s something that will be vital if players want to advance the campaign and unlock more areas. At the start, Edward’s vessel can’t compete against the larger man-o-wars or Manila galleons that they’ll scout via the spyglass, but adding stronger hulls or more powerful guns can gives players a chance. The ship is one half of the formula for success; the other is crew members. Players will be constantly losing men during boarding or other quests. They’ll need to constantly gather recruits when they come ashore. That’s done through missions or exploration of the high seas (Players can rescue stranded sailors on rafts and use them as crew). ACGA_SP_53_E3Toy_SearchingForMap_1377255594 Talking to a bar keep will lead you to close such as treasure maps. MORE TOUCHES OF FAR CRY 3: Also on land, players can do odd jobs for islanders like chasing after couriers or rescuing fellow pirates in distress. A more useful activity is hunting. Edward can shoot or stab the local wildlife like iguanas and ocelot (though it’s odd to see them so abundant on a desert isle) and skin them. He can then use the harvested material to craft upgrades like a holster to carry more pistols. Again, it’s another touch that reminds me of Far Cry 3. But for me, the biggest game-changer is the tablet support. One of the biggest problems with Assassin’s Creed 3 was that Ubisoft Montreal created a world so large that players needed to constantly pause the game and search the map for where they wanted to go. It took them out of the experience of just exploring. With tablet support, players can use the second screen to look for treasure (players find maps in the game) or they can manage Edward’s fleet of ships, a fun diversion. It’s an extra layer of control that makes playing much more enjoyable. ACGA_MP_13_PirateHQ_PuppeteerKill_1377255565 Players can customize a number of items of 15 new characters in multiplayer mode. MORE OPTIONS IN MULTIPLAYER: When it comes to multiplayer, Ubisoft Montreal and its six other studios working on the project made sure to give players more of what they wanted. This time around, there are 15 new characters to choose from and they're more customizeable now. Players can change out hats, uniforms, relics. They can even pick a specific stun move. More important than the superficial, players can also pick abilities and killstreak/losing streak rewards. The abilities are unlocked as players earn experience in matches. That's standard for the times, but one of the more interesting tweaks is that players can unlock some gear in the multiplayer mode by completing objectives in the single-player. It gives an incentive to play both. Meanwhile, the big multiplayer upgrade in Assassin's Creed 4 is something called Game Lab. It lets players customize the rules for a match. Gamers can have an 8-player free-for-all where players are limited to guns. That's more fun than you'd expect and pushes other strategies than just blending into the crowd. I'm just curious if players can come up with a modified version of Quidditch, where a player on opposing teams chase after a collectible shanty (ie. the AC4 version of Ben Franklin's Alamanac pages) while other members try to shoot or otherwise kill them. What's even better is that players can vote on what experiments they like in Game Lab and those top game modes can be given prominent play. GAMELAB3_1377255638 Game Lab can create some interesting rule sets. WITH THE WOLF PACK: If competitive multiplayer isn't your thing, there's also a Wolf Pack rule set, that's basically a co-op horde mode. Players will go through several waves of objectives and players have to complete them within the time limit. It can be anything from assassinating four guys at the same time or defending treasure chests from looters. It's fairly enjoyable but I'm more engrossed with playing virtual hide and seek with others. Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is scheduled for release Oct. 29 on PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360 on October 29. It is set to launch on the PlayStation 4 on Nov. 15 and Xbox One on Nov. 22. A PC version is available on Nov. 19. Images courtesy of Ubisoft
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